The Senate voted Wednesday to avert at least one chronic Washington political crisis for more than a year .

With a snowstorm bearing down on the capital , it approved a House-passed measure that allows the government to borrow more money to pay its bills through March 2015 .

President Barack Obama signaled that he would sign the legislation , so the Senate vote was the last hurdle to resolving the debt ceiling issue until after the November congressional elections .

`` I 'm pleased that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to pay for what they 've already spent , and remove the threat of default from our economy once and for all , '' Obama said in a statement , adding that he hoped `` this puts an end to politics by brinkmanship . ''

Wednesday 's result was a blow to tea party conservatives who oppose any kind of increase in federal borrowing .

Filibuster denied

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas , a leader of the GOP tea party wing , mounted a filibuster attempt to force a 60-vote threshold for proceeding on the debt ceiling measure .

However , a dozen Republicans , including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , joined Democrats to overcome the filibuster on a 67-31 procedural vote that avoided another politically damaging legislative impasse over spending .

The Democratic-controlled Senate then gave final approval by a 55-43 margin on strict party lines , with McConnell and the other Republicans who helped overcome the filibuster voting against the measure to reduce their political risk .

`` We got a good outcome , '' said GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska , one of the 12 who helped defeat the filibuster but then opposed the measure on the final vote .

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said last week the debt ceiling must be raised by February 27 , or the nation would risk a technical default .

After Wednesday 's Senate votes , Lew said the debt ceiling plan along with a recent budget agreement and spending bill `` will provide certainty and stability to businesses and financial markets and should add momentum to the economic growth forecasted in 2014 . ''

To Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York , the defeat of the filibuster bid by Cruz signaled that `` the American political world is moving in our direction . ''

`` Republicans are trying to put tea party politics in the rear view mirror , '' he said .

After the House and Senate consideration of the politically charged matter , Obama added that the `` full faith and credit of the United States is too important to use as leverage or a tool for extortion . ''

Cruz sticks to his guns

Cruz , however , was unapologetic .

`` Today 's vote is yet another example that establishment politicians from both parties are simply not listening to the American people , '' he said . `` Outside the beltway , Americans of all political stripes understand that we can not keep spending money we do n't have . ''

With Congress on break next week for the President 's Day holiday , failure to pass the debt ceiling measure Wednesday would have brought the nation close enough to the deadline to possibly shake financial markets .

On Tuesday , the GOP-controlled House passed the debt-ceiling measure on a 221-201 vote , with only 28 Republicans supporting it compared to the 199 who opposed it . Meanwhile , 193 Democrats backed the measure with only two voting `` no . ''

The House vote followed an internal Republican fight over efforts to attach deficit reduction provisions to the debt-limit legislation .

Obama and Democrats rejected any attempt to negotiate on the issue , which previously led to political brinkmanship that caused the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating in 2011 .

In the end , House Speaker John Boehner gave up efforts to link the measure to a provision repealing a cut in some military pension benefits . The Ohio Republican allowed a vote on a `` clean '' bill demanded by Democrats and despised by conservatives .

The shift by Boehner evoked rare praise for the speaker from the Senate 's top Democrat .

`` It is encouraging that some of my Republican colleagues seem to be regaining their grip on sanity this week , '' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday before the Senate vote .

GOP change in tactics

Until it happened , House Republicans insisted that any increase in the borrowing limit had to come attached to deficit-reduction provisions .

At a closed-door meeting on Monday , they discussed a plan to increase the debt ceiling until March 2015 -- past the upcoming congressional elections in November -- while also repealing cuts to military pensions that were part of the recently passed federal budget .

Less than 18 hours later , though , Boehner told reporters the GOP proposal could n't pass because `` we do n't have 218 votes . ''

Some conservatives oppose raising the debt ceiling under any circumstance , while Democrats had made it clear they would unanimously reject any measure that tacked other provisions onto an increase in the borrowing limit .

Without a purely Republican majority , Boehner decided to split up the GOP plan by holding separate votes on repealing the military pension cuts and a clean debt ceiling increase .

The House easily passed the military pension measure earlier on Tuesday , then passed the clean debt ceiling legislation . Both Boehner and his top deputy -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia -- were among the 28 Republicans who supported the measure .

On Wednesday , the Senate also passed the military pension measure after the votes on the debt ceiling legislation .

Republicans facing pressure from conservatives ahead of the November vote were reluctant to back any kind of hike in the borrowing limit , a core issue for the political right because it represents rising federal debt .

Boehner blames Obama

Despite his support for the proposal , Boehner put the blame for needing a `` clean '' debt-ceiling bill with no deficit reduction provisions on Obama , saying the rising federal debt was his fault .

`` It 's the President driving up the debt and the President wanted to do nothing about the debt that 's occurring , will not engage in our long-term spending problem , '' Boehner said . `` And so , let his party give him the debt ceiling increase that he wants . ''

At the same time , Boehner declared himself disappointed about what he called a `` lost opportunity '' to address unsustainable federal spending .

Republicans across the ideological spectrum agree that another round of political brinkmanship could harm their party after it got blamed for October 's federal government shutdown .

A recent CNN/ORC International poll found that 54 % of respondents would blame congressional Republicans for a failure to raise the debt ceiling , while 29 % would blame Obama and 12 % would blame both .

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Senate also approves measure to repeal cuts to military pension benefits

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12 Republicans join Democrats to defeat a filibuster bid by Sen. Ted Cruz

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Under the measure , no debt ceiling showdown until 2015 at the earliest

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Obama signals he 'll sign bill , says he hopes it ends `` politics by brinkmanship ''